Like the time last season when he visited on Senior Night and was adored as a recruit on a night reserved for outgoing Kansas players.

Or the time this season when his presence on the roster caused a Late Night overflow, which prompted KU officials to schedule an open practice.

Or Wednesday, when Wiggins flashed through the Phog one last time and gladly deferred to seniors while scoring nine points in 23 minutes.

Until he is taken early in the NBA draft, additional appointments in crimson, blue, white, grey, or whatever color scheme Kansas selects for the postseason, await.

Wiggins’ qualities, and thus his value to the storied KU program, can only be evaluated after the postseason — outside the home atmosphere Wiggins sheepishly admired one last time Wednesday as the No. 8 Jayhawks dismantled Texas Tech.

With high stakes looming, and a new, intensive glare soon to be thrust on Wiggins, Self again attempted to ease whatever burden his 6-foot-8 wing faced.

“He scores more than I thought he would,” Self said. “He’s averaging a little over 16 a game. I thought he would be a guy who would labor to get 16 a game and he gets 16 a game pretty easily. His numbers are better than I thought they would be.

“If he shoots 33.3 from 3, I’m happy. If he averages 15 a game I’ll be happy. If he gets six boards a game I’ll be happy. There’s a lot of things from the stats standpoint that I thought going into the season that he would really have to improve, in a lot of areas, to get there. And it hasn’t been hard for him to get there. He’s been pretty consistent.”

Pretty much.

Wiggins’ 16-point average is two short of the over-under line set by Vegas oddsmakers going into the season. Still, if Wiggins finishes at 16.0 (achieved so far on an average of 11.6 field goal attempts) it would be the sixth-best scoring output during Self’s 11 seasons as KU coach. Against ranked opponents, Wiggins has averaged 17.8 points, with the Jayhawks going 7-3 in those games.

As much as it has been verified that Self can attract one-and-done blue chips destined to become lottery picks, Kansas is not a place where a dominant scorer goes to thrive. Other threats always exist at KU.

Nonetheless, Wiggins is, by default, the Jayhawks’ go-to man, a distinction often accentuated during the NCAA Tournament. It is a role Wiggins accepted more than embraced.

“I don’t think his mindset has ever been to be a scorer. I think his mindset has been to fit in,” Self said. “To me, being aggressive to score that much when defenses would be designed to shut him down, I thought that would be hard for him to do, but it hasn’t been.”

Wiggins can do a little bit of everything, but nothing absolutely blows you away.

Except his freakish athleticism, which he often presents with instinctual bursts. Sometimes in the clutch, such as the late charge Wiggins manufactured to push Kansas State into overtime in Manhattan, or the follow shot that beat Texas Tech in Lubbock.

So Wiggins can get things done … just not always by design. He is adept at making plays you don’t see coming, in part because Wiggins has gone about his business as quietly as possible for a player with such huge build-up.

“It looks like he’s disinterested at times or maybe he’s coasting,” Self said. “Looking back over time, he couldn’t have handled it better with all the hype coming in.

“He just plays. He doesn’t worry about defending himself, he doesn’t worry about talking about anybody else, he doesn’t do anything except just go play. But I know (criticism) registers, and I know those things are used to motivate him.”

Soon, incentive will be packaged into an elimination format Wiggins encounters for the first, and only, time as a Jayhawk.

The final appraisal of him at Kansas will be made outside of the home arena where Wiggins’ consistency did not match his celebrity.

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